Terence Conran: the man who banished the spam fritter

Terence Conran, who has died aged 88, introduced a country of grey houses and colourless mackintoshes to the dolce vita. He instigated a revolution in taste.

Terence Conran © Shutterstock
(Image credit: © Shutterstock)

“In these dark times… it is important to celebrate someone, however flawed, who knew what the dolce vita was and wanted us to have some of it too.” That, says Suzanne Moore in The Guardian, was the great gift bestowed by Sir Terence Conran, who has died aged 88. Whether designing furniture or opening restaurants, the Habitat founder “instigated a revolution in taste”, viewing it as his mission to democratise design long before Ikea flooded the world with its flat-packed furniture. Starting out in the post-war years (he worked on the 1951 Festival of Britain), Conran waged war on “the grey houses, the spam fritters, the colourless mackintoshes”. He brought the sensuality of “abroad” home.

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.